It is known that first-year retention rates are a cause for concern within higher education. One way in which to tackle this is to consider how institutions can best prepare new students for the transition to university. The current paper details a project from the University of the West of Scotland where first year psychology students enrolled on…

Statistics is a core subject in the psychology undergraduate curriculum and is often associated with increased anxiety among learners. The aim of this study was to identify factors relating to statistics anxiety, and specifically, how prior experiences in mathematics and A-Level science qualifications may influence students' perceptions as they…

From a series of listening exercises as part of the Race Equality Review (2021) at the University of Reading, it become clear that decolonising the curriculum is important to both students and staff. The aim of the decolonising the curriculum project was to create an effective resource to support colleagues to decolonise their curricula across a…

The pandemic resulted in many courses being shifted to online delivery, but some courses are designed as online courses from their conception. Courses intentionally designed for online delivery should be well-received by students, but it is not clear which aspects of courses students find particularly appealing and unappealing. We examined…

Drug and alcohol neonate simulators were used to highlight the effects of substance misuse on prenatal development within lifespan development modules to 61 Psychology undergraduates and 12 sixth-form Health and Social Care students. A mixed method approach was used considering both knowledge development and perceptions of experiential hands-on…

Academic achievement can be thought of as the extent to which learning has been accomplished. Previous work suggests that students' self-esteem is impacted by academic achievement, though it is not entirely clear why this is. The current study therefore explored this through interviewing eight psychology students from a Scottish university, before…

Restrictions on in-person teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic severely challenged higher education practices worldwide. While didactic delivery of course content is easily achievable with virtual teaching technologies, promoting critical engagement with this material can be more difficult, particularly with classes of larger size and lower…

Higher education (HE) is fairly accommodating of sexual diversity in many countries. However, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other sexual minority (LGBT+) students and staff still face many challenges regarding acceptance and integration which may impact learning and teaching experiences. This article discusses the relevance of LGBT+…

Understanding student motivation is key to unlocking higher student satisfaction and allowing teachers to meet the expectations of their students. Psychology students have their own unique motivations. Using autoethnographic methods, a recent graduate and a professor of psychology come together to recall our own experiences from the classroom.…

Research demonstrates the pedagogical value in stressing the 'real world' applicability of subject-specific content in a psychology programme. The move to online teaching prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic has given way to more creative uses of technology to enhance the student experience. In this paper, we demonstrate the value in applied…

It is challenging to teach about racism well. One of the reasons for this difficulty is that the topic of racism is sometimes met with resistance from students. Therefore, it is important for psychology instructors to continue to identify and practice effective ways to teach about racism. I contend that the study abroad experience is a valuable…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, students, and teachers of the developing countries had to shift from the face-to-face traditional classroom to an e-learning environment, which elicited various reactions to teaching and learning. I conducted this research to understand how students perceived online learning and to share my reflexive experiences about…

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to shape and disrupt teaching provision in Higher Education, educators have responded with a swift pivot to online teaching for the 2020-2021 academic year. The debate surrounding the pedagogic utility of pre-recorded 'asynchronous' versus live 'synchronous' lecture modality continues to grow among teachers of…

In the UK, psychology degrees are designed to equip students with skills such as critical thinking, research methods, and analytical debate. Many of the key skills and subject-specific content that is taught in the first year of a psychology programme is also introduced in A-level and AS-level study of psychology. Therefore, one would expect…

Psychological literacy is a concept in psychology learning and teaching in Higher Education (HE) that considers how psychology students can intentionally apply psychological knowledge to personal, professional and societal goals. However, despite its prevalence among psychology Higher Education scholars and developers, it is unclear whether…